Pointer tool

ABSTRACT

This invention relates to a pointer tool for connecting to a display device, comprising a number of sensors elements being positioned on a two-dimensional surface, for measuring a predetermined parameter at a surface, the measured quantity being sampled at a chosen rate, and calculating means for comparing the measurements from the sensor elements for detection of movements in two dimension over the elements based on changes in the measured parameter, the time between the changes and the known relative positions between the sensor elements.

This invention relates generally to a pointer tool for connecting to a display device and more specifically to motion detection based on signals typically from a finger scanner.

The market of biometrics is evolving rapidly, and the industry is becoming more mainstreamed. However, for biometrics to penetrate the consumer market, requirements are strict in respect to both price and performance (eg. power consumption).

Currently finger scanners are typically pure capturing devices, hence the responsibility of any signal processing is left to the host. Thus, for implementation in eg. a mobile phone, requirements are also strict in respect to the use of processing power and memory of the signal processing. Nevertheless, as these processes mature and can be implemented in the finger scanner device, the requirements will still apply.

The size of a matrix finger scanner is typically restricted by the size of the finger images to be captured, due to the number of interconnects if the sensor where to be separated from the IC. Since the price is typically very much proportional to the size of the silicon die, the price of matrix finger scanner can not be expected to decrease significantly. For a stripe finger scanner, however, where the user wipes a finger over one or more arrays of sensor elements, the number of channels is reduced dramatically and separation of sensor and IC is possible, and the size of the IC is not restricted to the size of finger images. The reduction in channels of course also contributes to reduce the size of the die substantially. Since the price and the size of the IC are so related, stripe finger scanners have the potential of breaking the consumer market.

International patent application no. PCT/NO98/00182 describes a stripe fingerscanner requiring that the finger is moved over the scanner, which then samples information about the finger surface and generates a two-dimensional representation of the finger image.

For stripe finger scanners, the user must be allowed to pull the finger over the scanner at various velocity. If the finger scanner samples at a fixed rate, this causes for a method that detects the speed of a finger and remaps the rows that are sampled, so that the axes of the remaped finger image are equal and linear.

Menu controlled electronic equipment, such as PDA's or some mobilephones, require some type of control device coupled to the display to enable to user to choose from the menus. This may be performed using pointer tools such as touch sensitive displays, navigation wheels or touch sensitive pads, also adding to the equipment costs. It is an object of this invention to provide a pointer tool based on a fingerprint sensor, the sensor thus obtaining an additional functionality without adding hardware or complicated software to the product.

This object is obtained using a pointer tool as described above, being characterized in that it comprises at least two sensor rows for measuring a predetermined parameter at a surface, and calculating means for correlating the measurements from each sensor row for detection of movements over the sensors based on changes in the measured parameter, and a display device coupled to the calculating means for indicating the measured movements on the display, e.g. as a cursor.

The invention will be described below with reference to the accompanying drawings, illustrating the invention by way of examples.

FIG. 1 illustrates schematically a linear fingerprint sensor.

FIG. 2 illustrates a first method for velocity measurements.

FIG. 3 further illustrates the method in FIG. 2.

FIG. 4 illustrates an alternative method for measuring velocity.

FIG. 5 illustrates a semi linear fingerprint sensor adapted for use as a pointer tool.

FIG. 6 illustrates the procedure for using the layout illustrated in FIG. 5 for detecting movements in two dimensions.

FIG. 7 illustrates an alternative layout for a finger print sensor being usable as a pointer tool.

FIG. 8 illustrates an additional alternative layout for a finger print detector pointer tool.

FIG. 9 illustrates an additional alternative layout for a finger print detector pointer tool.

FIG. 10 illustrates a four directional navigation tool.

The typical method for determining the speed of a finger pulled over a stripe finger scanner would be to use auto correlation. This would require one or more additional arrays of sensor elements parallel to the image sensor elements, if the image sensor elements consists of only one array.

Important factors for a speed correction process to run on eg. a mobile phone, are that it should be fast, require little processing power and use little memory. Preferably it should run in real-time, due to the amount of memory that would be required to buffer a finger image captured of fingers wiped at various velocities, if the speed correction is post-processed.

Some facts about eg. a finger pulled over a finger scanner, can be used to simplify and create a more efficient process for determining the velocity of the finger. FIG. 1 shows a possible layout of sensor elements for such a solution corresponding to the solution described in the abovementioned international patent application PCT/NO98/00182. The layout consists of one array of image sensor elements, and one array of additional speed correction sensor elements. Each additional speed correction sensor element form a pair with a corresponding sensor element in the image sensor element array, as indicated. Since the direction a finger is pulled is known, such a pair can be used to detect the speed of a finger. For enhanced tolerance on the finger pulling direction, adjacent sensor elements on the image array can be used.

The sensors may of course be active continuously, thus measuring any changes close to the sensors at any time, but for use in mobile phones or PDA's a preferable additional features is that at least one touch sensitive sensor is provided which may activate the others automatically. Thus saving the power resources of the equipment. This touch activation may be based on any type of sensor, but is preferably based on the use of at least one of the scanner sensors, e.g. triggering the measurements at a predetermined change in the capacitance of the sensor surroundings.

An example of a digital readout according to the invention of a speed correction channel pair is shown in FIG. 2. Calibration of any significant variation in offset and gain between the channels should be performed prior to speed correction. The two time series represents the same section of a finger, since the sensor elements are in line with the pulling direction of the finger, where the phase angle between the two signals represents the time the finger uses from the front channel to the back. However, due to variations in velocity of the finger, the sections may be distorted in the time scale.

The range of velocity a user may pull a finger should be set in accordance with what is natural for a human being. When a finger is pulled at a natural speed, the velocity will not vary significantly within one cycle of the signal, ie. one ridge of the finger surface. Because of this, it is possible to only make a few measurements during one cycle and let these values be valid for a fixed time-frame as indicated in the figure. To get the most exact phase angle, measurements should be done on the flanks of the signal, ie. where the signal is increasing or decreasing rapidly.

As shown in FIG. 3, a sample in the front channel can be selected based on the signal level variation of the two adjacent samples. The pitch of the two sensor elements in a speed correction pair should be less than the smallest pitch expected of the ridges in a finger surface. Thus, whenever the signal in the back channel crosses the level of a sample selected in the front channel, it represents the same point on the finger surface. The calculation of the measurement should be at subpixel level for increased accuracy. When the number of samples is known for one point at the surface of the finger to move from the front channel to the back, the speed of the finger can then be expressed as: v=D*F/n where

-   -   v is the speed     -   D is the pitch of the two sensor elements     -   F is the sampling frequency of one channel     -   n is the number of samples         The distance the finger has moved during one sampling cycle of a         channel, can be express as:         d=v/F         where     -   d is the distance the finger has moved during one sampling cycle         of a channel         From the two equations we get:         d=D/n

Since the pitch of the sensor elements of a pair is fixed, the distance the finger has moved during one sampling cycle of a channel, is inversely proportional to the number of samples one point on the surface of the finger uses to move from the front channel to the back. By accumulating the delta distances the finger moves from sample to sample of the same channel, selections can be made of which rows to discard, and which rows to map to the finger image maintain the correct scale, or new values can be calculated from interpolation.

As shown in FIG. 1 a certain number of speed correction pairs should be spread out along the image array. This would be to minimise the possibility that the ridges are parallel to the direction the finger is pulled for all the pairs, which would cause the process to fail to detect any speeds. For those pairs that detects speeds, the results for the different pairs should be averaged for enhanced accuracy. If for some period no speeds are valid, history should be used.

For the solution described so far, the requirement to the signal quality is relatively strict in respect to signal/noise ratio. For finger scanners that don't provide this signal quality, a similar approach can be used, to the cost of some increase in processing power and memory usage.

FIG. 4 shows a sketch of such an approach. Line T₁ marks the peak point of a valley of a finger section from a back channel. When a successive sample exceeds a certain threshold T₂ from the peak point, that valley will be defined. The area A below the previous ridge is now ready to be defined. This can be done by setting a level T_(A) eg. ¾ from the peak point of the ridge to the closer of the peak points of the two alongside valleys. Since the last defined valley does not yet have two ridges alongside, it is not ready to be fully defined until the next ridge is defined. To complete the definition of the ridge, the area A can be used to compute the vertical axis of gravity G₁. Line G₂ represents the axis of gravity of the correlating ridge in the front speed channel, as the figure is showing the back channel. The number of samples between G₁ and G₂ represents the same phase angle as in the approach described above, and hence can be replaced in that description.

Since a finger scanner will not be active for much time in eg. a mobile phone or Personal Digital Assistant (PDA), the value would be increased substantially if such a unit would include some kind of pointer functionality. The combination of two such modes in one unit is favorable since the modes are exclusively active. Since the mobile phone technology is moving towards graphical displays (opposed to character based displays), with displays growing bigger and number of buttons being reduced, the need for a pointer device is becoming more important. For PDAs this is already the case. Typical pointing devices for mobile phones and PDAs today are navigation keys or pen. The touchpads typically used in portable computers are too large to be convenient for such devices as mobile phones and PDAs.

This invention describes a method for adding the functionality of a pointer into a finger scanner by utilising the structure of the finger. While a touchpad detects a finger being moved over its surface, this method detects the movement of the sensor area over the finger surface. For a stripe finger scanner this requires some additional sensor elements, while for matrix finger scanners a selection of the already existing sensor elements is sufficient. As this mode will be active for a substantial amount of time during the use of a mobile phone or PDA, it is of importance that the number of sensor elements being used is reduced to a minimum, to keep the consumption of power, processor and memory of the host low.

The method for measuring velocity according to this invention may easily be used to detect the direction of the finger, e.g. by using two perpendicular fingerprint scanners and as suggested above comparing the signals from the speed correction sensor not only with the signals from the closest sensor in the array but also with the sensors being close to this, and thus providing a possibility for calculating the angle of the movement.

An example of a layout of the sensor elements for this method is shown in FIG. 5. The principle of the pointer function is to determine the direction of the finger being moved and then calculate the distance on the basis of the speed of the finger.

When the finger is being moved over the scanner each of the four arrays of elements shown in FIG. 5, two vertical and two horizontal, will scan a section of the finger. The measured values of each sensor element is stored in an array representing the history if each element, the length of said stored history depending on the possible velocities of the moving surface. Each array is then compared to the latest history of the other array on the same axis, to search for an identical section but allowing a displacement of 45. When a match is found the direction is determined and on the basis of the displacement and the axis of the match. In more detail this is performed as follows:

The most current samples from the sensor elements in the left vertical array are subtracted from the most current samples of the uppermost sensor elements in the right vertical array. The sum of the absolute values of these 12 subtractions is stored as an element in a matrix. The same procedure is performed on the left array, with different subsections on the right array moving one sensor element downwards for each time. In this example this will be performed eight times, and the results will be represented as one column in a matrix. This is repeated for a chosen number of times by subtracting the most current samples of the left array from the historic samples of the right array, thus generating a matrix as follows:

$\quad\left\lfloor \begin{matrix} {\sum\limits_{m = 1}^{12}\;{{a_{m} - b_{m,1}}}} & {\sum\limits_{m = 1}^{12}\;{{a_{m} - b_{m,2}}}} & \cdots \\ {\sum\limits_{m = 1}^{12}\;{{a_{m} - b_{{m + 1},1}}}} & {\sum\limits_{m = 1}^{12}\;{{a_{m} - b_{{m + 1},2}}}} & \cdots \\ \cdots & \cdots & \cdots \\ {\sum\limits_{m = 1}^{12}\;{{a_{m} - b_{{m + 8},1}}}} & {\sum\limits_{m = 1}^{12}\;{{a_{m} - b_{{m + 8},2}}}} & \cdots \end{matrix} \right\rfloor$ where a_(i) is the most current sample from element i in the left array and b_(j,k) is sample from element j in the right array where k represents the historic number and k=1 is the most current. The number of rows in the matrix represents the resolution of angle, while the number of columns represents the range and resolution in time of the velocity of a finger. The number of columns and will also set the requirement for buffering of samples.

One more matrix is created where the samples of the most current right array is compared with the history of the left array. Additionally, two similar matrixes are created from the vertical arrays. The global minimum of these four matrixes will represent the current speed and direction of the finger, as shown in FIG. 6. This complete procedure is repeated at a certain rate to detect changes in the motion.

When the speed and direction is-initially established, the procedure can zoom in on a smaller range depending on the expected variations and sampling rate.

For enhanced accuracy, time frames of the pixel rows can be used instead of just single rows. The pitch between sensor elements and between the arrays of sensor elements should be optimised for the expected pitch of ridges and valleys in a finger surface, eg. 50 and 200 μm respectively (which results in a sensor area of less than 1 mm²).

Increased accuracy of speed and direction can be obtained by interpolation of the global minimum. The maximum velocity of a finger is related to the sampling rate. A threshold should be set for the global minimum to detect if the speed is within the operating range. Some sensor elements should be used for finger on/off detection—by eg. requiring a certain number of these elements to be above a certain threshold—to prevent processing when a finger is off, both in respect to processing power and the fact that all values in the matrixes will be almost zero in that case.

This finger on/off detection can also be used to detect taps and double taps by counting the number of samples the finger is on or off (if the sampling rate is fixed), and setting limits for how long the finger is allowed to be on/off. Tap detection can also be replaced by pressure sensing, eg. by checking changes in time of the total signal level of all sensor elements. FIG. 7, FIG. 8 and FIG. 9 shows alternative layouts of the sensor elements, which requires some more or less changes to the procedure.

For mobile phones with character based displays, the need for a pointer is restricted to a navigator that enables the user to browse menus. This is currently typically solved by the use of keys or a roller drum. Implementation of such a mode for finger scanners, can be done with much less requirements to power consumption, processing power and memory usage.

This embodiment of invention describes a method for a four directional navigation, based on four, or more, additional sensor elements on a stripe finger scanner. The sensor elements should be larger than the image sensor elements, because the structure of the finger surface is regarded as noise in this context. For matrix finger scanners, clusters of image sensor elements can be used to represent a large element.

FIG. 10 shows an example of a layout of such sensor elements. The purpose of the navigation sensor elements is purely to detect the presence of a finger or not, which simply can be solved by a signal level threshold. If a finger is wiped over the sensor area, the four navigation sensor elements will be triggered at certain points in time.

The direction of the finger wipe is given by the two first elements that are triggered, ie. if N1 and N2 are triggered first, the direction is down; if N1 and N3 are triggered first, the direction is right; if N2 and N4 are triggered first, the direction is left; and if N3 and N4 are triggered first, the direction is up. Additionally a check can be done on the difference in time between the first and the second and the first and the third element are triggered. If these time differences are almost equal, the wipe can be disregarded because the finger has been wiped close to a borderline between two of the four directions. The setting of a threshold for an acceptable factor between these two differences, represents the tolerance of the angle a user may wipe the finger in a direction. Furthermore, if a threshold is set for a minimum of the time difference between the first and the third sensor elements are triggered, the process kan distinguish between wipes in a direction and a tap. Timing of the presence and absence of a finger enables detection of single and double taps. Also, a scrolling feature can be implemented in such a way that if a finger is wiped onto the sensor area and detected as a valid direction, and the finger is kept on the sensor area, after a certain time the procedure can interprate this as repetitive wipes in the same direction, and at a certain rate.

The number of sensor elements can be increased or decreased to adapt for more or less directions, ie. two sensor elements can detect two directions, while 8 sensor elements, eg. aligned in a circle, can detect 8 directions.

This invention is described as primarily based on a finger print scanner of the type described in International patent application no. PCT/NO98/00182 thus primarily on capacitance measurements on a finger surface. It is, however, clear that the invention may use different fingerscanner technology, such as thermal, within the scope of this invention. 

1. Pointer tool for connecting to a display device, comprising: a plurality of sensor elements, positioned on a two-dimensional surface to form at least one linear image array and at least one per pendicular linear speed correction array, to measure the movement of a fingertip surface at a chosen sample rate, storing means to store the measurements from each sensor element over time to create a sample history for each sensor element, and calculating means to calculate the speed of the fingertip surface based on the respective sample histories and relative positions of the plurality of sensor elements.
 2. Pointer tool according to claim 1, wherein said calculating means is further adapted to compare the most recent samples of each sensor element with the sample history of a chosen number of the other sensor elements to calculate the velocity and direction of the fingertip surface relative to the plurality of sensor elements.
 3. Pointer tool according to claim 1, wherein the linear image array defines a linear finger scanner.
 4. Pointer tool according to claim 1, wherein the sensor elements define two perpendicular pairs of sensor element arrays.
 5. Pointer tool according to claim 1, further comprising a display device coupled to the calculating means for indicating the measured movements on the display.
 6. Pointer tool according to claim 1, wherein at least one sensor element is adapted to respond to measured values exceeding a predetermined value to sense the presence of the fingertip surface.
 7. Pointer tool according to claim 6, wherein further comprising means for measuring the time of the presence of the fingertip surface and the time between the responses, so as to recognize taps, or double taps on the plurality of sensor elements.
 8. Pointer tool according to claim 1, consisting of one linear image array, one parallel speed correction array and two perpendicular sensor arrays.
 9. Pointer tool for connecting to a display device, comprising: a plurality of sensor elements, positioned on a two-dimensional surface with known distances between the sensor elements, adapted to measure a predetermined parameter of a finger surface at a chosen rate, a first portion of the plurality of sensor elements forming a linear fingerprint sensor array and a remaining portion of the plurality of sensor elements being displaced from the linear fingerprint sensor array in a perpendicular direction; storing means for storing the measurements from each sensor element to provide a set of samples from each sensor element; and calculating means for comparing the samples from each sensor element with the samples from other sensor elements and for calculating the movement of the finger surface in two dimensions based on finger direction and speed.
 10. Pointer tool for connecting to a display device, comprising: a plurality of sensor elements, positioned on a two-dimensional surface to form a matrix fingerprint scanner, to measure the movement of a fingertip surface at a chosen sample rate, storing means to store the measurements from each sensor element over time to create a sample history for each sensor element, and calculating means to calculate the direction and speed of the fingertip surface based on the respective sample histories and relative positions of the plurality of sensor elements. 